Supervisors approve changes to Ames fringe plan

By Austin Cannon Staff Writer acannon@amestrib.com

Tuesday

Nov 14, 2017 at 4:40 PMNov 14, 2017 at 11:00 PM

The Story County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved an amendment to the Ames Urban Fringe Plan (AUFP) map, taking one of the early steps to prepare the area northwest of Ames for annexation into the city.

The three-member board unanimously approved two requests, one from Friedrich Land Development and R. Friedrich and Sons Inc. and the other from the city of Ames, to classify the land parcels as an “urban residential area,” a designation that would allow them to be annexed.

The area includes about 100 acres of the Friedrich properties, stationed south of Cameron School Road and immediately west of George Washington Carver Avenue. Friedrich Land Development Company, represented by Kurt Friedrich, plans to develop the land for residential and commercial uses and supports being annexed into Ames, where it would benefit from city services.

The city requested the area include the Ames Golf and Country Club, which has agreed to comply with the city’s annex request, and The Irons, a housing development adjacent to the golf course. The city’s request also contains about 147 acres of mostly farmland east of George Washington Carver Avenue and five smaller residential land parcels.

In all, the map amendment would affect about 450 acres of land.

The supervisors were the first of the three entities needed to sign off on the map amendment. Both the Ames and Gilbert city councils will need to approve the changes for the amendment to be adopted. If that happens, the city of Ames would then be able to pursue annexation plans on its own, which it plans to do.

Board chair Rick Sanders sought to differentiate between amending the AUFP map and beginning the annexation process. Just because the area could be available for annexation doesn’t mean it would all be annexed at once. He noted, in fact, that state annexation rules would prohibit the entire 450 acres from being grabbed in one fell swoop.

“I think it’s being viewed in one lump sum,” he said. “And I don’t think it’s anywhere close to one lump sum as we sit here today … You could easily see this thing (annexed) in two separate pieces.”

The discussion over the amendment took the lion’s share of Tuesday’s meeting — more than two hours. The conversation, which included the supervisors, Kurt Friedrich, county staff and other elected officials, had to pause midway through because the available storage space on the county’s audio recording equipment ran out. After a short break, the meeting resumed with a portable tape recorder sitting on the table near Sanders, who asked that speakers talk loudly so their voices could be picked up. (The meeting ran until about 1:30 p.m., delaying the supervisors’ 1 p.m. meeting with Story County librarians.)

The supervisors approved the AUFP map amendment with the condition that a traffic study is conducted to measure the planned developments’ impact on Friedrich Road and George Washington Carver Avenue. The county owns the intersection of those two roads, where traffic is already a concern to those who live in the area.

Like Sanders, Friedrich described the AUFP map changes as a first step before considering zoning changes, traffic and other development options. It’s a long process, he said, and more conversations are to come. Along with residential development, he supports building a small commercial “node” at the Cameron School-George Washington that could include a gas station, a coffee shop and a pharmacy.

“Let’s assume for a minute that it did not have commercial. I think we’re missing a real opportunity to be able to provide in a planned manner the commercial services that would be valuable to have for the rooftops that will come into this area,” he told the supervisors.

Some of the speakers on Tuesday advocated for further discussions and communication between the governing bodies and service providers — like fire and police departments — that would be affected by a future annexation. Gilbert mayor Jonathan Popp was one of them. He noted that while he wasn’t opposed the the potential development at the Friedrich properties, the conversations about the future need to start soon. For example, he mentioned that Gilbert’s fire crews might be able to respond quicker to a call in the proposed development area than the Ames Fire Department.

“It can’t hurt us to have these discussions,” he said.

Jerry Moore, the county’s planning and development director, said that some community members, including some who serve on the county’s planning and zoning board, were worried about traffic effects from the planned Friedrich development. There were also concerns about annexation causing a loss of tax revenue for the Franklin Township’s cemetery board and the Gilbert-Franklin Township fire department.

The Ames Planning and Zoning Commission will consider the map amendment question at its Wednesday meeting. (It already approved the amendment at its Oct. 18 meeting, but an error in the public notice for the meeting necessitates that they take up the issue again.) Assuming it’s once again approved, the amendment will go before the Ames City Council Nov. 28.

The Gilbert City Council will also consider the changes on a future date.

Read more about Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting in Thursday’s edition of the Ames Tribune.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.